This is me right now! Exclusively breast feeding, and the only time I can get her to have a decent feed is before she goes down for a nap, I’d be fighting her for the whole two hour awake period to get something in her. But I have no idea how much she is taking in at all :( so past week I have been feeding her to sleep and she will have the occasional snack when I can get her on. So same here with the dark room, less distractions around. Hoping to find another way as I really want to teach her how to self settle asap! Xx

Thank you for this article. It is exactly what I am experience. So reassuring to read.

I have been experiencing the same with my 4 month old and it’s been a month and a half she is not taking milk properly. She takes 80ml after 3 to 4 hours and it worries me so much that I have lost my sleep over this.

My baby girl is about to turn 5months next week and yes, we are in this situation right now. I am first time mom and it’s just worrying too much. Everything is just suddenly change and I am trying to relax and calm but everytime i feed her, i keep praying she will take the bottle.
Thank you for this article.

Thank you for ur posts girls. The same for us: first time mama, we are 4,5 months and it’s been 7 weeks with these refuses, crying a lot when I try to lie him for drinking time and arching his back. Sometimes when almost asleep yep, he drinks somewhat. I am breastfeeding and formula supplementing, but since stressed out of this behavior the breast milk may have dropped. I am not sure, so I tried to start him the solids because I was feared of baby sleeping from tiredness with an empty stomach. I wish u and ur babies health and relief asap!

Thank you for your article. I thought I was going crazy and just knowing I am not alone helps. I even went to the hospital Monday, after 12 hours of my son not drinking. Only to be sent home after he started drinking 90ml at the hospital. It was so embarrassing but I was just relieved that he started drinking.
I am just so confused, I am waking in the night to try and get him to drink but when he is sleepy the most he drinks is 10ml-30ml. He is a premature baby and overall was growing well on the 25th percentile. During lockdown and not having contacts or experience- articles like this are so useful. Please do send any other tips people may have.

Thank you for your article. I thought I was going crazy and just knowing I am not alone helps. I even went to the hospital Monday, after 12 hours of my son not drinking. Only to be sent home after he started drinking 90ml at the hospital. It was so embarrassing but I was just relieved that he started drinking.
I am just so confused, I am waking in the night to try and get him to drink but when he is sleepy the most he drinks is 10ml-30ml. He is a premature baby and overall was growing well on the 25th percentile. During lockdown and not having contacts or experience- articles like this are so useful. Please do send any other tips people may have.

First time mum and have been experiencing the same with my 4 month old baby girl. She is an absolute delight but just refuses to drink. We have tried music, dark room and what not! What’s worked for us is gently rocking her to sleep and putting the teat in her mouth when she is about to sleep. Overall, in a day, she drinks anywhere between 750-950 ml (Yes! That’s a crazy range!)

Its a lot to follow as a routine every time she needs a feed. I feed her every 4 hours although she does not ask for food.

Thank you for the article! Helps to know, we are not alone.

Wishing all the wonderful mums the very best in this roller coaster ride called motherhood! :)

I have suffering my baby at 4mons old and by next month she’s 5mons. She less drink even sleeping. What is should do this age? Pls help me. Im looking forward. Thank you and have a good day!

Hi Geraldine, I’m so sorry to hear that. I can imagine how stressful and frustrating you’re feeling. I’m so sorry I don’t have any other suggestions apart from feeding baby more frequently and see if baby will feed more so he/she is getting enough liquid in the body? Hope things change for the better soon xx

Am exclusively breast feeding.. exactly same problem.. even i changed plac3 and room…didn’t worked.. night in sleep she takes from breast only.. day time not even from bottle…from spoon i am feeding 50ml expressed milk in spoon for 3 to 4 hours

Thank you for your article. Same here, I am so depressed , I even cry. But hope our almighty God will help us

1st time mum here experience the same with my 4month old baby girl… She don’t drink milk through out the night.. even I feed her middle of night she doesn’t open her mouth… I’m soooo confuse tool her to the doctor many times.. doctor are confused as well.. she is still the same almost 1month already 😢😢😢😢😢 I’m beginning to have stress cs of her… Tired googling everything tried every single thing nothing works … She is active when she cries for milk she only drinks 30ml… One feeding total feeding in a day is hardly 330ml full day… I don’t even know is it enuf for her or not

My little girl (turning 4 months next week) is doing exactly the same.. Refusing the milk. We had a perfect routine, she usually drinking on avarage 150/160 ml, 5 times per 24 hours. Since last week, though, she refuses. Arching her back when I take her in my arms.. The same way I’ve been feeding her since she came home.
I’ve tried everything, feeding her while sleeping is the only solution at this moment.
I am wondering whether she is just tired of the milk.. Maybe she wants solids..
Generally, she is still a very happy baby and hardly ever cryes.

I’m a first time mum and my baby is approaching four months. She was drinking well for the first 3 months or so but in the last 2 weeks she been arching her back and crying when we position her for a feed. She’s already dropped from the 50th percentile to the 10th percentile for her weight, I fear she’ll drop even lower! The doctor recommended 600ml per day but it’s a struggle to match that and even hit 500ml on some days. We’ve tried to change positions when feeding, have different people feed her, feed her smaller amounts at shorter intervals of 2h and also tried feeding her after 3-4h but she still only drinks a small amount (like 60ml or less). She doesn’t fight the bottle so much at night but still only manages to drink 60ml at best. Any suggestions would be welcome! I’m about to try a new bottle and see if that’s the problem. Meanwhile sorry everyone is going through this, wishing everyone all the best in turning their situation around!

It’s crazy how similar we are all experiencing the same thing. My baby was drinking 180ml five to six times a day. At 4 months he weighted 17lbs, he was 85 percentile after weighting 6lbs at birth. Right after his four months vaccines he started refusing to eat so I figure he wasn’t feeling well, four weeks later it was even worst, sometimes he would only drink 30ml at a time, that’s 150ml difference. I thought maybe it was teething, acid reflux, thrust but none of these was the case. I wonder if it is food aversion. Did it get better for any of you?

I am in the same situation. My five months old hasn’t been nursing when awake for the last one month. I have to feed her when she’s asleep. Has anyone come across a solution for this?? Please help

I feel you guys. My LO is almost 3 months and he was having exactly what everyone had been describing for past 3 weeks. He would cry when in feeding position, suck on the teat then turning head or arching. You can feed him when he is half asleep. I had tried different level of teats, different position, different area and every thing you named it. Just like someone said above, I pray before feeding time, during feeding and after feeding to have him take some like 1-2 ounces.

I went to doctor also and before the doctor came in he was drinking some milk. He nearly had 400cc in 24 hrs so I took him to the doctor. He still have good tears, good wet diapers and he had gained weight from 2 month check up so they are not worry. It is difficult for a mom to see your little one refusing.
My little one is bottle fed with breast milk and he was taking 2.5-3 oz every 3 hrs before.

Lady, it is called “feeding aversion”. I read this book “Your Baby’s Bottle-Feeding Aversion: Reasons and Solutions
Book by Rowena Bennett” in 2 days and kept re reading since I wanted to keep going back to old habit of “pressuring” to feed the baby. It is hard to take that I am the cause of his problem. I am still trying to apply the sigh from the book and we are at Day 12. I had cheated and fed him or continued feeding him when he was asleep.

Now our feeding times are more pleasant but I got so frustrated of waiting for him to get hungry and sometimes he won’t eat for 5-6hrs. The book does help with trying to point out my mistake of “pressuring” to finish the bottle or pressuring to have him eat when he was not hungry and says to deal with the aversion. Some of the examples in the book are like my situation and I am amazed of how accurate the descriptions are.

I had the same problem with my first child and I thought it was due to me going back to work and she was refusing the nipples. I could now see that she had bottle aversion also.

It is good to know that I am not the only one out there. If you have a chance read that book so that we have some pleasant feeding time.

Hugs and prayer for all of you.

Dear mamas, so grateful that I’m not alone! My baby is 4 months plus and refuse milk, even direct latch! This was really driving me crazy wondering if she feeling unwell or something. And yes the most efficient way is to feed her when she is about to sleep. We know that is bad to feed her this way but most important she has more milk. Is really a tiring way but hang on mama, we will get through it one day!

Dear mamas, so grateful that I’m not alone! My baby is 4 months plus and refuse milk, even direct latch! This was really driving me crazy wondering if she feeling unwell or something. And yes the most efficient way is to feed her when she is about to sleep. We know that is bad to feed her this way but most important she has more milk. Is really a tiring way but hang on mama, we will get through it one day!

Hello moms
I am first time mom of 5 month old baby girl. We are also facing Same problem from last two months. I tried everything what worked for me is feeding while my baby is sleeping. Also sometime waiting till my baby asks food also works wonder but that is really frustrating to wait for almost 6 hours sometimes .
I hope this ends soon as it’s really very stressful every time feed her with fear of rejection

Our daughter was born 8 weeks early. She was born with CDH, a rare condition in which her diaphragm didn’t form during pregnancy..many issues with her lungs, intestines and heart…but here we are 4 months later and experiencing the same things mentioned here. She is on Domperiodone and Lanzoprozole for her reflux luckily it’s silent (no throw up) however we are struggling with her feeds…she’s eating 600-700 mls a day but it’s a struggle!!!!! Feeds take forever and half the time it’s her crying bloody murder…we’re at our wits end but all that goes away when she smiles back at us when she isn’t eating. It’s basically her feeds that have ruined our whole experience with her we love her so much we just hate seeing her in complete agony. Is there anybody here who have had their child on those medications? we’re they upped at any point?? her Dom is 0.5 mls every 8 hours and lanzoproazole is 1.13 mls once a day…they seem to help with no vomit but she is still in complete pain! is there anything for the pain? mikeysavatti@yahoo.ca is my email please let me know

Currently going through the situation. It is very hard to feed my 3 month old baby. I am trying very much to fill his stomach but not able to do. Really depressed mentally. Pls give valuable tips. Thankyou

Reading this article can we conclude that till the baby is active, less feeds are ok and even the weight will be gained gradually? Please suggest in case anyone was able to figure out any solution to this?

Thank you for posting your blog. My cousin has the same issue.
https://tinytwig.com.au/

My 4 months old daughter had same problem and she started avoiding both breast and formula milk. We tried all different things on her like feeding her while she was asleep, feeding her in dark, trying some flavours in the milk, put some honey on the nipple and infact for 2 days we fed her with dropper. At last we consulted with our doctor and doctor suggested that there is possible deficiency of iron and vitamin D3. He immediately suggested 1 ml iron and 1 ml D3 drop twice a day for her.
That worked well and baby started drinking milk after 2 days of medication.

Arching back = Acid Reflux get your LO on reflux medication

Currently facing same problems. And I am thinking of taking her to see her doctor. But I think I will try your procedure. Thanks for sharing.

I am so happy to see such similar symptoms! My baby was a really good drinker until 3 months, when he first went on his nursing strike. We changed the bottle teat to a faster flow and that made the most difference. We also fed him in more quiet places and no one spoke / walked within his eyesight when feeding. It seemed to get better although he never went back to his old self. At 4 months, he is now again on a serious dieting mode – we just got reflux medication from the paediatrician so hope it works. It’ll be really good to see if anyone found that their baby grew out of this phase – initially the doctor said it’ll pass in two weeks but it doesn’t seem to be going away.

I’m a young mom and I really love this. It’s helpful for me and my daughter. She’s been improving thank you!

It has been very helpful to read all the comments. My wife and I are relieved to know that we are not the only ones facing this challenge and that we aren’t’ doing anything bad. Our boy has been a great drinker, 2.7kg birth weight but now about 6kg at 3months. We just introduced him to 6 oz every 4hrs and a week later he started struggling to feed. He would turn his head everywhere and was looking all around during feeding time and now won’t even drink. We have not yet found a solution but hope that we can apply what a lot of people said here. For now, we are praying that he gets better. So sad and depressing to see him cry and cry just to feed.

Currently experiencing the same with my 3 months old baby girl. She had a routine and everything was going great. For the past 10 days she has lost her appetite. Even after waking up from 6 hours of straight sleep she doesn’t feel hungry.It has got worsen today and I took her to hospital.. Ped said since she has gained weight, I don’t have to worry. As a first time I can’t stop worrying and even cried a lot.

My LO is 3.5 months old and going through the same issue and only feeds when he is almost asleep. He will not accept bottle at all if he is awake :(
When did this end for you? What helped with this issue?

Hi mamas.. Its the most frustrating thing ever for your baby to just quit eating, My boy is almost 3 months now and it’s a struggle.. As things stand I am feeding while asleep, best he can take inn is 60ml, it’s a relief to hear that am not alone in this, I did everything possible including crying in between. So far the only thing that sort of works is feeding whyl asleep, I don’t like it but at least he doesn’t go dehydrated.
All the best

Going through same situation with my 3 month old son. He does not drink through out the night and in daytime drinks only 90ml -100 ml every 3 hrs. After drinking its taking almost 2 hrs for him to digest and keeps throwing the milk during tummy time. And does vomiting every 2 -3 days

First time mom here, my LO is 4 months and she is struggling so hard to eat, this has been going on for over a month now, she use to eat really good but now I’d be lucky if I got more then 15oz a day in her, feeding time is a hassle, keeps refusing jt, tried everything, temp of water, changed teats and bottles, tried to feed her more frequently and waiting out longer like 5-6 hours and still nothing, she’ll go over 19 hours of not eating and maybe get 30ml in her, the dr said she’s in the 15 percentile and she’s gaining weight with 6 or more diaper change so they’re not worried but I’m worried, mama knows best and I don’t think it’s normal, I have even tried to bring her to a quieter place with no distractions and all she’d do is fight me and cry!! It’s so fustrating and it’s mentally draining, all I do is get mad at myself and wondering what I’m doing wrong!! I’m so happy I’m not alone with this but there is no solution

First time mom here, my LO is 4 months and she is struggling so hard to eat, this has been going on for over a month now, she use to eat really good but now I’d be lucky if I got more then 15oz a day in her, feeding time is a hassle, keeps refusing jt, tried everything, temp of water, changed teats and bottles, tried to feed her more frequently and waiting out longer like 5-6 hours and still nothing, she’ll go over 19 hours of not eating and maybe get 30ml in her, the dr said she’s in the 15 percentile and she’s gaining weight with 6 or more diaper change so they’re not worried but I’m worried, mama knows best and I don’t think it’s normal, I have even tried to bring her to a quieter place with no distractions and all she’d do is fight me and cry!! It’s so fustrating and it’s mentally draining, all I do is get mad at myself and wondering what I’m doing wrong!! I’m so happy I’m not alone with this but there is no solution

My little one is the same now since 3.5 months old (he just turned 4 months now). He lost interest in feeding and just too distracted with everything. I have been breastfeeding and bottlefeeding with my breastmilk to supplement. I figured that he takes a feed when he starts to get tired, so lots and lots of tummy time and play until he starts to get annoyed (sometimes i wait til he gets a bit upset and cry) and then offer him my breast. My son sleepy-feeds so lots of breast compression while on the boob to keep him up, while pumping out with my other (i use a cheap bra insert pump which works). Once my son is finsihed with the one boob i shift him to the pumped out boob (dpnt worry as you never run out of milk) this ensures that he at least gets the hind milk from that boob. Then whatever i pump i supplement with the bottle which he takes no problem when he is sleepy feeding. This is my routine for now. In time, when i am much satisfied with weight gain, i will try to train him to feed much alert and awake. Maybe someone can give tips on that? How to make a fussy baby feed while awake or alert?

My little one is the same now since 3.5 months old (he just turned 4 months now). He lost interest in feeding and just too distracted with everything. I have been breastfeeding and bottlefeeding with my breastmilk to supplement. I figured that he takes a feed when he starts to get tired, so lots and lots of tummy time and play until he starts to get annoyed (sometimes i wait til he gets a bit upset and cry) and then offer him my breast. My son sleepy-feeds so lots of breast compression while on the boob to keep him up, while pumping out with my other (i use a cheap bra insert pump which works). Once my son is finsihed with the one boob i shift him to the pumped out boob (dpnt worry as you never run out of milk) this ensures that he at least gets the hind milk from that boob. Then whatever i pump i supplement with the bottle which he takes no problem when he is sleepy feeding. This is my routine for now. In time, when i am much satisfied with weight gain, i will try to train him to feed much alert and awake. Maybe someone can give tips on that? How to make a fussy baby feed while awake or alert?

I am a first time mum , currently frustrated and tired . My baby was born very premature 30 weeks gestational . For the past week it’s been a struggle to feed her, took her for the 4 mths shots after that she doesn’t want the bottle , I tried feeding her with a syringe, I get a little into her . Took her to the Peds 2 days ago he put her on Augmentin saying maybe she got a little infection . I am so frustrated as I am accustomed to feeding her every 3 hrs . She is currently doing 100 ml at every feeds we are down to 60 ml . I am loosing my mind over this as she is still under weight and has a lot of catching up to do as she was born premature.
Any one with similar situation?

I am somewhat relieved to see that this is semi common among other first time mothers. Since she turned 3months, she was easily distracted everytime I tried to feed her whether on bed, sofa or a nursing pillow. Until I found out the solution, rocking chair. I’ve to usually wait until she is tired and then gently bring her down to nurse. It saves me from huge headaches and she “talks” aa oo ee with complaints instead of full on crying. The down point is she has gotten so used to it now that she doesn’t take feed during day/evening time anywhere else, but rocking chair.

In the exact same position. She’s 5 months old. Used to drink 200ml per feed easily now im struggling to get her to drink 120mls. She skips feeds, most of the time she drinks 30-60 mls and spits the bottle out. Tried extending feed times to 6 hours, even first thing in the morning after 8-10 hours no feed she isn’t interested in the bottle. Been to doctors and paediatrician, haven’t don’t anything. Im going crazy trying to figure out what is wrong. I read someone said it happens right after an immunisation? Same with me, she stopped feeding right after her whopping cough immunisation.

First time mum here too. Couldn’t produce enough breast milk, so bub was on the bottle with supplement feeding from the first week. Stopped breast feeding at 2weeks and was able to pump a bit until 2 months. for the first 6-8 weeks she smashed the bottles- i was actually worried she was getting too much, 700-900ml per day. But at about 2 1/2 months she dropped back to 500ish per day. Still like that approaching 4 months of age. She does a great feed over night ~150ml, but during the day she’s hopeless… either darts her head, spits it out, just suckles and lets it go all dwon the side of her face ( it might be 30 min for her to get 40 ml in) or falls asleep…. sometimes she sees the bottle and just starts crying. Shes still gaining weight very minimally, but its driving me absolutely nuts

My LO turned 4months and at first I saw her gums and thought she is fussy and Arching her back due to pain from starting of teething. She would chew my little finger but won’t suck milk from the bottle. She would nibble on bottle teat for a long time to comfort her gums but won’t suck more than 20-30ml milk at times. She is salavating a lot as well. Her milk intake has gone down from 700ml formula to 300ml and she refuses to take breast milk I was really depressed. Then my mom suggested to give her a good massage both during the day before her nap in noon and before her bedtime around 7 Om and it worked wonders. After both the massages she feels relaxed and sleepy and a lot hungrier than without massage. She easily takes 120-140ml after bedtime massage. I would suggest all my lovely worried mums our there to start a massage routine asap before bed and then feed a whole bottle. Lots of love and happiness to you all 🙂❤️

Hey! I’m glad you found what worked :) I went through something similar and it turned out my babe had a cows milk protein allergy which was causing her tummy pain when she ate, and in turn created a bottle aversion!! Doctors didn’t know why she wasn’t drinking and losing weight and hours and hours of scouring the internet led me to that answer. There’s a program by Rowena Bennett designed for overcoming bottle aversion and I would super recommend that any parents with babies who aren’t drinking much, check it out and see if her description fits their behavior!!

Can’t belive I am across the world from you and is also facing the exact same problem with my 3 month and 2 weeks old daughter. Soooooooo happy to see I am not alone here.
First time Mom from Ethiopia🇪🇹

My baby is 4 months old. I am also facing same situation. I tried your method but it didn’t work for me. 😞

Hello parents, we had the same issue until we realized it’s acid reflux! We had our little one on acid reflux medication since shortly after birth but I had scaled it back. Then I started to notice all the issues noted in the article. Her doctor reassured me it’s the acid reflux so we put her back on Pepcid. Sure enough the problem was solved. One thing to consider if you are having similar issues with your little one

I’m so thankful for your posts. It reminds me that I’m not alone. My son (4 and a half month adjusted 3 month) dropped from 800mls per day to 400 after his 4 month vaccine. I read Rowena’s book about feeding aversion and followed the program. Today we are in week 4 and his volumes hasn’t gone up. Still hovers between 400-500mls. But his behavior has improved. He doesn’t cry at the sight of the bottle anymore. I just don’t know what to do and when this will end. It’s been a month of this battle. I lost sleep always worry about his dehydration. He can stay awake only for an hour and I’m worried if it’s from low milk consumption. Tried different formula, nipple, bottle. Nothing has worked. Can someone suggest any ideas? My PPD has gotten worse because of this situation.

Hi mommies!
Can someone plz updates us what happened with their babies? Im facing this situation now and so desperate !
Thank you

Hi mommies!
Can someone plz updates us what happened with their babies? Im facing this situation now and so desperate !
Thank you

Hi, try “pigeon wide neck” bottle and doidy cup. They worked for my baby girl for a few months, until she was about 8months old. (Started her bottle refusal since 4th month)

Now she is totally into solids, strongly refusing the bottle as she only want breastfeeding (sigh)

My baby girl is 10months now and everyday I am cracking my head to prepare milk based food for her, hoping that she can get more calcium from the food source.

Anyway, we just have to keep trying I guess. You are not alone:)

I read ‘your baby’s bottle feeding aversion’ by ROWENA BENNETT and followed as per her advices and it worked. I was in exact situation with most of the mummy here.

But still pls expect up and down in your baby’s milk intake. Like us, they might not be so good appetite on some days.

My baby just turned 5 months and we’ve had the same problem since 2.5 months. She was in the 95 percentile and dropped to 35 percentile.
After ticking off all possible causes, having multiple doctor visits and trying all different methods we could think of, she’s still not feeding well.
It is much better than before though, since I read the book Your baby’s bottle feeding aversion (that someone else already mentioned above). Now she doesn’t cry, fuss and arch her back during each feeding anymore, but she still eats very little and not gaining weight well. I’m desperate to hear if anyone has been to the other side of this – will the baby ever feeds normally again?
I still highly recommend the book though. It describes so many of the same situations that I read above. It’s eye-opening.

I have a 5 month old baby who had worst case scenario of colic (gas) and now we are dealing with his acid reflux. Our pedriatician has recommended reflux tablets which have helped him to calm a bit and also suggested trying to start solids as he himself had to give solids to his son at 3.5 month of age. I have tried to wean my son on solids, but he is not able to digest them, so at the moment I am force-feeding him. Which means he would drink only 4-5oz of milk on his own per feed, rest of the feed I give using spoon as my son is able to support his head freely and has learnt to take food using spoon. It eats up a lot of my time at each feed but at least now he has started to gain weight. Hope this method is helpful xxx

I have a 5 month old baby who had worst case scenario of colic (gas) and now we are dealing with his acid reflux. Our pedriatician has recommended reflux tablets which have helped him to calm a bit and also suggested trying to start solids as he himself had to give solids to his son at 3.5 month of age. I have tried to wean my son on solids, but he is not able to digest them, so at the moment I am force-feeding him. Which means he would drink only 4-5oz of milk on his own per feed, rest of the feed I give using spoon as my son is able to support his head freely and has learnt to take food using spoon. It eats up a lot of my time at each feed but at least now he has started to gain weight. Hope this method is helpful xxx

Hi
I experience the same problem here.he is 4 months and 20 days.strikes formula bottle feeding cup feeding both.even when I breast feed he screams.I am really stressed.
Checked everything but nothing works.I am going to visit pediatrician will see what he’ll tell.

Having the same problem now. She refused to drink from my breast. She is okay so far but i know she is hungry. She Will be 4 months in a week. I am clueless, I dont know what to do. I am alone with her now, my husband is outstation for two weeks. I live in a foreign country where my husband from and I am really stress right now. If something bad happen Idk what to do :((

I am in the same phase too… it’s so reassuring to read this article and all you mama’s experiences in the comments section. My baby is 3 months old and I am facing the same situation where she takes only 60 ml every 3 to 4 hours it’s almost like I am force feeding her because she doesn’t get hungry! She self soothes herself by sucking herself thumb! It’s been a rough week for me being a ftm, couldn’t sleep or be peaceful. Everyone thinks that I should take it easy but I am so stressed about it. Now I feel a bit more confident reading the article! Thank you.

Thank you for letting me know that I am not alone.
I’d like to share my story where it worked for my case, hope it may help other moms with similar situation.
My baby boy started to reject milk from nearly 3 months. He took nearly 900ml/day before, but then it dropped to 400-500ml. My mom advised me to feed when he falls asleep. It worked ok at first, brought the milk intake up to 750-850ml/day, but it made him more and more fuss whenever I feed him awake (we couldn’t always feed him when he slept). First, we had to play, dance, sing, involve 2-3 people in the feeding. After time, play didn’t work, he screamed even when I just put the bib on him. I read many books and they are all against the sleep feeding, but no one gives good explanation so I ignored their advice. Until I read one very helpful book, which explains that sleep feeding will take away the baby’s instinct to connect hunger and eating. They will no longer know that when they are hungry, they should eat, they just feel the hunger and fuss and scream, but don’t know drinking milk will help them to release hunger. It sounds exactly like my boy. So I decided to stop sleep feeding, he was nearly 5 months at that time. It was scary at first, he took only 400-500ml/day when awake, but I insisted to only offer milk when he was awake, he rejected it of course. In 3 days, he took only 400-500ml/day, but it started to improve on day 4 and he already reached 900ml from day 5. It’s amazing to see him opening mouth big to catch the bottle.
We enjoyed feeding time for nearly 2 months until the solid food came. He now rejects milk again, I’m not sure why, and he does not take much of solid either. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

My son had oral thrush around his 3rd month. Since then he hasn’t been feeding well, even after the oral thrush was cleared. He is now 5 months old, and has not gain any weight for the past 1.5months. I’m afraid he is he “failure to thrive”. How can I get him to eat more and gain weight like before? Desperate, pls help!

Please help!
I’ve tried everything for the past month with my nearly 5m old! Lucky if he drinks 60mL each feeding. He’s moving and blabbing so much I can’t even hold him when I feed him! Never had this issue with my now 2 year old first born! Again have a toddler, so there’s absolutely no quiet place anywhere anymore. What can I do?!

Hi all. I’m not sure how old this thread is but we have all come here with the same issue – generally babies around the 4 month mark refusing bottles or are much reducing what they drink. It’s due to a bottle aversion. Simple as that. I searched long and hard to find out what was wrong with my little man. We managed to fix the issue within about one week. This commonly presents at around 4 months as this is when babies automatic sucking reflex lessens, so at that point baby can start only taking what they want – they gain much more control. We are then confused, we are used to them taking much more milk so we try getting them to drink more, we end up pressuring them, and they then become averse to feeding because of the pressure associated with it. There’s an excellent book by Rowena Bennett – I got it and it solved the issue. Its difficult for a few days but it works. I hope this can help someone else. I’ve spent so much time worrying about this issue in the past. It is so concerning when it’s happening, but there is a solution.

My baby boy is 4 months now and would be 5 this month. This article is amazing indeed cos I almost felt I’m the only one going through the same thing. Been to the doctor and everything seems to be fine but still feeding dropped from 140/120 to 90/60. Sometimes I just feel like introducing yoghurt or something else cos I think he’s just tired of the milk🤷‍♀️.
Can someone advise if this is okay ?

Oh thank you so much for this article. My 4 months old baby is starting to refuse milk now. I’m feeding her in a quiet dark room, she is sleepy as well, starving (9 hrs without food ) and still refusing . She had a few drops.. more like for thirst. I changed the bottle, the teat at both bottles .. nothing. It’s like she lost interest in milk

Has acid reflux medicine helped in this situation?

Thanks for writing up this post. In the exact same situation as described above. Have been doing dream feeds to make up for the amount she was drinking before this problem started. Will check with doctor about reflux as many have mentioned in the post.

I have a 2 month old and she was so good prior to her 2 month vaccinations. She didn’t cry nor had trouble feeding prior. As soon as she had them she has refused to feed while awake. This is stressing me out! She only feeds just before she goes to sleep. I have even given her my expressed milk in a bottle. She’s happy to take that but not my actual breast. I don’t know what to do. Did any of the babes feed again?

Similar Situation. My LO is nearly 5 months. Feeding on bottle okey but since she turned 4 , things have changed . She is more sleepy and not hungry . Been to lactation nurse and GPs, they don’t seem worried as she is still gaining weight . She sleeps whole night and when I offer her milk in the morning, she refuses . Every feed is a struggle now . Each feeding in 4-5 hours is only 60-70 mls . I’m worried. Not sure what to do.

This is me right now. Thanks for the article it really helps to know others have struggled with this. Baby is 3.5 months and suddenly refusing breast milk so I introduced formula. Now I’m mixing 75% formula to 25% breast mill. I went to the pediatrician and he said there’s nothing wrong so we’re all thinking it’s colic. Let’s see hopefully she starts being less fussy.